Website Traffic: Hands-On Guide To Massive Free Traffic

Website Traffic: A Must-Have for Webmasters

Website traffic is the lifeline of any website on the Internet. Regardless of whether you sell advertisement, sell your own products, or sell the products of others, you need traffic, and lots of them.

You need 2 things to get good traffic:

Great website with good & unique content or service
Great marketing plan

I assume that you already have a great website ready with good content. Therefore, I'll focus solely on the marketing aspect in this lens. If you don't have a website yet, go build one. Come back here later when you already have one, I mean a good one.

What follows are the juice of online marketing. No flowery words. Only essence.

We'll start with the easier methods and move up to the harder ones.

Social Bookmark Marketing

This is the easiest one. Go to the following social bookmark services and submit your site or blog.

Note

Do not try to spam these sites by submitting all your articles, webpages or blog posts. You'll most likely end up being blacklisted. Instead, submit only a few of your best articles or blog posts.

Search Engine & Directory Marketing

Submit your websites to the search engines to get them indexed. Your sites will then be searchable in the search engines.

Submitting to the directories is a little more trickier as your site will first be reviewed by an editor before being listed. This could take between a few weeks to a few months. In some cases, your site might even be rejected.

The rule of thumb is to submit and then forget. If your site gets accepted, good. Else, move on.

Here is the list:

Social-News-Voting Marketing

Social News Voting sites are very similar to social-bookmarking sites in that they allow you to share news and articles from your site. But in addition to that, community members can discuss about your articles and vote for or against them. The more votes your articles get, the higher they rank and there is a probability they will be featured on the front page of the site. This will give you an avalanche of free traffic! However the traffic is usually short-term and non-recurring.

Below are some of the top social news voting sites:

Note

The key to success here is to first socialize and get yourself known in the community. Contribute some meaningful discussions. Then only do you try to submit your articles or content.

Article Marketing

Write a few articles on a subject you're comfortable with. Put your website link in the signature box at the end of your article.

Some internet marketers and gurus advocate using modified PLR (private label rights) articles. I would strongly advise against doing that. Your article will most likely end up being rejected. If it gets accepted, it will rank lowly in the search engine results. My advice is to write your own articles using your own words. It is not that hard after all if you really try.

Here are some sites you can submit your articles to:

Forum Marketing

Online forum is another place where you can promote your websites, blogs or Squidoo lens. Most forums do not allow you to promote your business directly in your postings. However, you can create a signature with a link back to your site. Your signature will be appended to each of your posts. There are thousands of forums on the Internet catering to different niche. Below are a few forums to get you started.

Note

Help out fellow members by posting quality answers to existing topics. Establish yourself as an expert in your circle and develop trust and relationships.

Social Network Marketing

Social networking sites allow you to build an online network of friends who share the same interest as you. You can put your website link in your profile or post some interesting articles with link pointing to your sites.

Traffic Exchange Programs

If you want some instant free traffic, traffic exchange programs are for you. Basically, you earn credits by visiting the websites of other members. These credits can be exchanged for traffic to your site. Sounds simple, eh?

Here are some programs to get you started:

A Word Of Warning

If your site makes income mainly through Google Adsense, you should avoid traffic exchange programs because Google's official stance is "these programs are not recommended". If your website sells products or you want to drive traffic to affiliated sites, then by all means, try them.

Craigslist Marketing

Craigslist is an online community that provides free classifies and forums on various topics. It attracts over 10 million visitors per day! Can you can see the potential here? As a result of its popularity, Craigslist is a top target by spammers. In the past it was quite easy to post multiple ads but recent anti-spam upgrades make it harder. Here are some tips to help you:

Post to the correct category
Use different titles and ad description
Use different email address for each posting
Change your IP address often

Here's the site: Craigslist

Blog Marketing

Blog marketing requires more patience and work. After creating your blog, you need to keep it fresh by posting new content every day or two. But it's worth the work. Search engines love blogs, especially blogs with fresh content. They usually rank high on the search results. Put your website link on your blog. This will give you incoming traffic and increases your website's Google PageRank.

Here are some places where you can create free blogs:

The above is only one aspect on blog marketing. There is another aspect which is blog commenting. It involves leaving short comments and your website link on other relevant blogs. This sounds easy but let me be frank with you, the effectiveness of this method is quite limited. You might get some incoming traffic but in most cases, it won't increase your website's PR or search ranking. This is because most blogs add a nofollow attribute to outgoing links to deter spammers; and seach engines will ignore these links.

Online Video Marketing

Video marketing is one of the latest online marketing techniques that is often overlooked by internet marketers. When done correctly, video marketing is extremely viral. A humorous or slightly controversial video clip will surely create a buzz. In addition, video marketing can help you brand your site. You can include your site logo or URL on the video clip to achieve this.

Upload your video clip to the following video sharing sites:

Video Search Engine Optimization Tips

1. Use meta data in each video. Include targeted keywords in the title, description and keyword tags.
2. Encode your video in multiple formats.
3. Utilize media RSS.
4. End your video with a message like "Forward this video to your friends".

Secret Weapon - Squidoo Marketing

Yes, the secret weapon I'm talking about is Squidoo, the very website you're looking at now. It's one of the most effective marketing methods you'll find. I'm putting it at the end because I always save the very best for the last.

I don't think I need to put much introduction about Squidoo here. You'll most likely already know what Squidoo is all about. There are also plenty of help and support here.

So what are waiting for? Sign up for an account if you don't have one yet and start building your lens.

Internet Marketing Books You'll Love

These books will help you learn the more advanced techniques of online marketing.

The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly

by: David Meerman Scott

Amazon Price: $15.72 (as of 07/06/2009)

Guerrilla Marketing, 4th edition: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for Making Big Profits from Your SmallBusiness

by: Jay Conrad Levinson President

Amazon Price: $9.72 (as of 07/06/2009)

Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions

by: Tim Ash

Amazon Price: $18.89 (as of 07/06/2009)

Marketing to the Social Web: How Digital Customer Communities Build Your Business

by: Larry Weber

Amazon Price: (as of 07/06/2009)

Mastering Online Marketing: 12 Keys to Transform Your Website into a Sales Powerhouse

by: Mitch Meyerson, Mary Eule Scarborough

Amazon Price: $14.93 (as of 07/06/2009)

Poll: The Most Effective Online Marketing Methods

Please vote according to your experience and not guesswork. This will allow us to have an accurate list of marketing methods ordered by their effectiveness.